Open Window
by bluemoonmaverick
Summary: Tag to Window of Opportunity. Sam goes to Jack's house to confront him about "the look." Just-for-fun one-shot.


**A/N – I'm not really sure how to classify this story. It could conceivably fit within canon, though it's not something that is likely to have happened. So, I'll leave it to you to decide how you want to think of it. I just hope you enjoy!**

**With huge thanks to BethanyActually for the beta.**

Open Window

It had taken her a good hour to work up the courage to go over to her commanding officer's house, and now that she was standing on his doorstep at - she glanced at her watch and groaned - almost 2200, she was having some serious second thoughts.

Normally, she would never think of showing up unannounced, but she simply could not get the memory of the look he'd given her that morning out of her mind. As the day had progressed and she'd learned all that had happened to him, she'd become increasingly suspicious of what that look might mean. So before she could talk herself out of her decision, she raised her fist to his door and knocked.

Several seconds later, she heard a crash followed by a string of curse words. Apparently, he'd kicked something over on his way to the door. When he opened it, she saw that he was barefoot, in jeans and a t-shirt, holding a beer, and looking as devilishly handsome as ever.

"Carter!" he exclaimed, clearly surprised to see her there.

"Hi, sir," she replied nervously.

He took a swig of beer. "What brings you to my neck of the woods at this hour?"

She fidgeted, still on edge. "I, uh, need to ask you something."

"Phone not working?"

She winced. "No, sir. I mean yes, sir. I'm sure it is, but this is the kind of question I need to ask face to face."

Now he was intrigued and maybe a little nervous himself, but he wasn't about to let her know that. "Oh?"

"Yeah. Look, can I come in?"

"Um," he hesitated for only a second, as he quickly processed the risk of allowing her to enter his home, late at night, in a form-fitting sweater she'd apparently chosen for the sole purpose of testing his commitment to maintaining their strict supervisor-subordinate relationship. "Sure."

He opened the door wider to let her in, and she stepped inside as he closed it behind her. "You want a beer?" he asked and began walking toward the kitchen.

"No, sir."

He stopped in his tracks and turned back to find that she hadn't moved from her spot just inside the door. He sat his beer down on a side table and crossed his arms over his chest, pinning her with his best commanding-officer stare. "Well, then, let's get right to it, shall we? What's on your mind, Major?"

She took a big breath before she spoke. "This morning, at breakfast, Daniel was asking you if you'd done anything during the time loop you wouldn't otherwise have done because you knew there'd be no consequences."

Uh oh, he thought. He began to suspect where their conversation might be heading. "And?" he asked nonchalantly, though he could feel his stomach start to knot.

"And, well, you looked at me."

Yep, it was going there. He immediately fell back on past practice, deciding that the best tactic was to play dumb. "I did?"

"Yeah, and then you sort of smiled."

Crap. "I did?"

"You did, sir. Even Daniel noticed."

Double crap. "Huh."

"So, since then I've been wondering if during the time loop...if we, uh, might have, um..." She faltered, having no clue how to finish that sentence without embarrassing herself. God, she'd been so sure she knew what that look of his meant. What if she'd misunderstood?

Jack watched her, fascinated, as a blush climbed all the way from her chest, up her neck, and onto her cheeks. He couldn't help wondering for a split second just how far that blush might go before mentally shaking himself and getting back to the business of playing the dolt.

Maybe, just maybe, if he made her say it, she'd decide to drop it. "If we might have done what, Carter?"

She squirmed. "You know..."

"No, I don't." Come on, Carter, he thought. Let it go.

"Did we, um...Were we, ah...together?"

Nope, she wasn't giving it up. Damn it! He felt himself start to sweat and swallowed, hard. "Together...?"

"Intimately?"

In his desperation, he did the only thing he could think of - he feigned shock. "What!"

But his great plan backfired, because she instantly began to backpedal, clearly mortified. "Oh god. Never mind, sir. I'm sorry I asked." She immediately turned to open the door, desperate to leave.

And now he felt bad. Really bad. Because she wasn't wrong. He sighed. "Hold on a minute."

But she wasn't stopping. In fact, she'd already pulled the door open and was about to step through it when he pushed it closed from behind her. There was no way he was going to let her leave like this. "Carter, wait!"

Warily, she turned around to face him, and he couldn't help the pang of desire caused by her close proximity. Still, he didn't back away. "Do you think I'd do that?" he asked quietly.

"No, sir. Of course not," she replied, refusing to meet his eyes.

Jack could almost feel the heat radiating off her flaming cheeks. Realization and hope suddenly bloomed simultaneously. He cocked his head at her. "Would _you_ do that?" he asked, not quite willing to believe it.

Though he wouldn't have thought it possible, she instantly flushed an even deeper crimson. Could that be what this was about? Was she worried about what _she_ might have done in the loop?

"I, um...Can we just forget this ever happened, sir? Clearly I was reading the situation wrong."

She sounded miserable. It was time to come clean. "No, wait." He lightly grasped both her shoulders. "You weren't reading it wrong, Carter. Something did happen between us." At that, her eyes went wide. "Not that!" he added quickly, then dropped his hands to his sides.

He backed away from her a little and rubbed the back of his neck. He really hadn't planned on telling her about what he'd done in the loops, but she was looking at him now, somewhat expectantly.

"I, uh, might have kissed you a couple of times." He mumbled it quickly, hoping that she couldn't make out what he was saying, but he had no such luck.

"You kissed me? Twice?"

Now it was his turn to be uncomfortable. He winced. "Okay, maybe it was more like ten or fifteen times." Her eyes went wide once again. "There were a lot of loops!" he said in his own defense. "But it never went further than that." At least not much, he thought.

"Oh." She contemplated this new information. "So I was...participatory?"

He gave her a half grin. "Oh yeah."

She furrowed her brow, and it occurred to him that perhaps he'd said that with a little too much gusto.

She looked at the ground. "This is so wrong."

The bottom dropped out of his stomach. Damn, he'd messed up and good. "Carter, listen. I...I'm sorry. I don't know what to say. I promise you, though, I wouldn't have done it if I didn't think you were willing."

Her eyes flew up to his. "No! No, I mean it's wrong because now you have all these great memories of us kissing but I have...nothing."

"Ah," he hedged, as he replayed what she'd just said in his mind. Wait. Great memories? And then he was struck with the best idea he'd possibly ever had in his entire life. "You know, if it would help, maybe I could show you what it was like. Just to keep things fair."

She stared blankly at him for a moment, then her expression softened with the faintest hint of a smile playing at the corners of her mouth. "You'd do that for me?"

Her mood was contagious, so he plunged his fists into the pockets of his jeans and, rocking back on his feet, gave her his cockiest grin. "Well, it would be a bit of a sacrifice. But, you know, for the sake of our working relationship, I'd be willing."

And now they were staring at each other like gawky teenagers on their first date. Had they just agreed to kiss? That was when it dawned on him that the whole kissing-your-subordinate thing wasn't allowed. Uh oh. Maybe that hadn't been such a great idea after all, especially so soon after their barely veiled confessions during the za'tarc incident.

In fact, now that he thought about it, he distinctly remembered a few loops where things really might have gotten out of control but for time resetting itself. That, and the lack of consequences, was what had convinced him to kiss her in the first place. But now there was no reset button, and the consequences-well...

Nope, he'd be damned if he was going to pass up this opportunity. As long as they established the proper parameters, they'd be okay, right? He needed to think fast. "We probably need to set some ground rules," he said quickly.

"Ground rules?"

"Yeah. For instance, we should limit ourselves to just one kiss."

"Okay," she agreed, somewhat hesitantly.

"And no one's feet should leave the ground." At that, she gave him a quizzical look, but there was one loop where he'd lured her into a broom closet (who knew the SGC had broom closets?), and she'd just wrapped her legs around his when oh-holy-mother-of-god, if time had not reset itself... "Yeah, you're just going to have to trust me on that one."

"Okaaay." She drew out the word, clearly growing even more skeptical by the minute.

"And we probably need to keep it above the neck," he added, as all the various loops began to come back to him.

"I thought you said all we did was kiss!"

"We did!" he insisted. "But there, ah, might have been a couple of times we got carried away."

"Sir..."

He sensed that she was losing her resolve, and he wasn't about to let that happen. "Ready?"

"Ready," she replied, after a moment's hesitation. But neither of them moved, and instead they just looked at each other uncertainly. "This is a little awkward," she offered.

"Ya think?"

"Maybe-" she began.

But she didn't get a chance to finish that thought, because in the next second he'd grabbed her around the waist, pulled her flush up against his body, and set his lips to hers.

She was, in a word, stunned. Within moments, though, her body was responding to his of its own accord, and really, she shouldn't have been surprised. After all, he'd had countless loops to learn what she liked and perfect his technique. And holy cow, had his research paid off.

At first, his kiss was gentle, his lips barely grazing hers. But then he palmed her cheek and his tongue was teasing hers, impliedly asking for more. She immediately opened to him, and in the next instant, her back was pinned to his front door, his body pressed against the length of hers, every last nerve ending erupting in flame.

She ran her fingers through the silver hairs on the back of his head and began returning his kiss in earnest. Desire pooled deep and low, as his other hand moved up from her waist to a spot just below her breast. She knew then they were both bordering on a total loss of control, but she just couldn't bring herself to care.

Without warning, he pulled back, though he didn't completely let her go. Instead, he leaned his forehead against hers and brushed his thumb over her cheek. "Carter..." he breathed.

She could feel his heart pounding in time with hers. "Sir?" she whispered.

"I don't have a reset button here."

"I know," she said breathlessly. And then the magnitude of what they were doing - what they were about to do - hit her with the force a staff blast. "I know," she repeated, a little more strongly this time.

He reluctantly released his hold on her and ran his hands through his hair. She began straightening her clothes and avoided meeting his eyes. She still wasn't completely sure her choice to confront him about what had happened in the time loop was the right one, but at least she no longer had to wonder.

"Thank you, sir," she said softly, turning to open the door.

"Carter," he replied quickly, before she had a chance to walk out. She looked at him over her shoulder. "One day we won't need a reset button."

She gave him a knowing smile. "Yes, sir," she replied, before making her way out of his house, but even further into his heart.

The End


End file.
